Archive for July, 2009

I just recovered from flu with fever and sore throat. My fever felt quite bad. I immediately went to the clinic to see the doctor. As during any normal doctor visit, the doctor took my temperature. Then he asked me to breath in and out while he listened with a stethoscope. He asked me to open my mouth and say “Ahhhhh” while he had a look at my throat. He typed a few things into his computer and said “Should be ok.” Then he prescribed me with a gargle for my throat, a cough syrup, an antihistamine for my cold, a nose spray, medication for my fever plus antibiotics.

So…… how do I know if I have regular flu or Swine Flu?

I tried to look for answers. I found The Star Online’s Live Chat on Influenza A (H1N1) with Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai on Thursday, July 30. Someone asked this question:

So, how do we know, then, that what we are having is normal flu or H1N1 ?

This was the reply that was given.

To know the difference between normal flu and H1N1 please go to our website, http://h1n1.moh.gov.my

I clicked on the website but I could not see the answer to that question. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough. So I searched further on the internet and found this video on YouTube.

It is by Dr. Joe Bresee, from CDC‘s Influenza Division. In it, he describes the symptoms of swine flu and warning signs to look for that indicate the need for urgent medical attention. I’m posting it here because I believe many of you will also be asking the same questions.

What is the difference between normal flu and H1N1? What are the symptoms of swine flu? Since the symptoms are so similar to regular flu, when do I seek urgent medical attention? The video describes the warning signs for both children and adults.

This is my latest toy. Its an electronic dictionary. I got it as a birthday present from hubby…. upon request. Hehe. Well, if I don’t request it, I’ll either get nothing or perhaps something else new for the house.

I like my Besta CD-668M very much. My only grouse is it does a rather lousy word for word kind of sentence translation under the sentence translation feature. Another way it can be improved is if they included a Math and Science terms trilingual (English-Malay-Chinese) dictionary in there. Then it would be perfect. Apart from that, I find an electronic dictionary very useful as a tool to teach my daughter.

The part that I find the most useful of all is the Chinese to English dictionaries. The trilingual dictionary including the Malay dictionary is quite useful too. Other than the dictionary, the 4-in-1 local learning card which comes free with the dictionary, has lots and lots of stuff for students is quite relevant for us as well. We can find Simpulan Bahasa, Penjodoh Bilangan etc in there. I find that my girl’s Primary One Malay has quite difficult Penjodoh Bilangan and Simpulan Bahasa which I need to refer to a dictionary to find out instead of racking this old brain of mine.

I like the handwriting input for Chinese Characters. It is easy to search for words that way. I also like the voice output which helps in our Chinese Pronounciation and the Chinese Handwriting Stroke Practise. The voice output is in English and Malay too. Even my 5 year old is learning to use the electronic dictionary now. We take it out for homework and revision use.

Yes, I love my new toy very much. And I would love it even better if Besta paid me for this post.

I would certainly recommend an electronic dictionary to anyone who does not understand Mandarin but whose kid is attending Chinese school. You’ll find it very useful…. but you must have a little bit of basic knowledge yourself in order to write the Characters and search for words. You can check around because there are many brands available. Sometimes they go to the schools and sell it there at a cheaper rate too so you can wait for special discounts as well. Another brand of electronic dictionary had such a special discount at my girl’s school but I had already bought my Besta at the time so I couldn’t enjoy the discount which is quite worth it.

Today….

• I decided to revive an old blog which has been in hibernation for 2 1/2 years!
• I am thankful for a little boy who makes me smile each time he sings “mummy, mummy, mummy” to the tune of whatever new song he learns. It certainly is music to my ears
• I am recovering from a fever and flu AGAIN. Each time I wonder if its swine flu! 
• I will try not to be eaten up by the two monsters called impatience and guilt
• I am relieved (perhaps wrongfully so) that the hospital has not called for a rebooking of another MRI yet
• I pray that God will keep my family safe from harm, illness or injury
• I pray that health freak mommy’s little darling will never ever have to go through her 3 week’s nightmarish stay in the hospital again
• I am going to vacumn all our mattresses just like the doctor instructed me to do to at least try to get rid of some if not all the dust mites that makes us go all sneezy everyday

Since, I’ve got vacumming to do, I guess I better stop here.

If I could vote for the most Malaysian Place, I would vote for a mamak coffee shop.

Sometimes on lazy Sunday afternoons, after a heavy breakfast, we would skip lunch. However, this would make us hungry around tea time, so we would head over to the mamak coffee shop for some roti canai and teh tarik. The kids enjoy roti canai too. They like to eat their roti canai with sugar just like their mummy used to do. Sometimes they would dip their roti canai into a little bit of dhall, just to make the sugar stick but that is the extent that they will take on anything spicy.

One such afternoon, I happened to glance around the coffee shop and I was amused to see a young Malay couple, a group of Malay, Indian and  Chinese teenagers hanging out, a lone middle aged Chinese, a few Indian men in a group, a young Malay family, then there is our family of four and various other combinations of Malaysians of different races as well as different age groups, young and old. It is truly a Malaysia place and I truly enjoyed my roti canai and teh tarik as well.

During one recent visit to the paedaetrician, I noticed that a lot more fathers are very involved with bringing up their children these days. This was evident because quite a lot of the children were accompanied by their fathers and not their mothers.

There was a father trying to comfort his crying child, a father walking and burping his baby, a father sponging and giving his feverish kid a drink, a father chatting, playing and reading to his kid while waiting for the doctor. This was during working hours on a Monday morning. I was touched by the scene but I wonder …. where did all the mothers go?

I like this new generation of fathers. I am glad my kids have one too.